Spencer F. Katt

At a time when people are still trying to figure out how to effectively use the Internet as a business tool, El Gato thinks the industry may have finally latched onto something—Web sites designed just to slam the competition! Just recently, opposing camps in the battle over the HP-Compaq merger used competing Web sites to […]

Given the economic climate, it seems any announcement from the Federal Reserve garners scrutiny from the world. The Kitty wonders, though, whether anyone besides bankers has noted the Feds announcement that its FedLine service has discontinued plans to adopt Windows NT. More than 10,000 financial institutions use the DOS-based FedLine to transfer billions of dollars […]

The mouser was amused at the CTIA wireless show in Orlando, Fla., last week. The headliner for the events annual gala was Jerry Seinfeld, who did his usual analysis of the inane. He had a great time overtly flinging the cord of his microphone around the stage while he stood under a gigantic “Wireless Lifestyles” […]

Whats in a name?” pondered the puss. “A lot, if the name has earned a reputation as a slow-moving commodity vendor.” Why, then, is e-service provider Cable and Wireless quietly renaming its Digital Island subsidiary to that of its newly acquired Web hosting biz, Exodus Communications? After all, thought the Kitty, Digital Island has a […]

Whether youre Bill Clinton or the head of a large corporation like Enron, it seems the best defense in any legal matter is to act like you just arrived on the planet. In a recent deposition of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for the ongoing antitrust action between the Redmondians and the litigating states that refused […]

Lets get ready to rumbllllllle,” shouted the Pugilistic Puss as he pondered recent indications that the gentlemens agreement between IBM and Microsoft to not publicly criticize or attack each other may not be quite so gentlemanly in the future. Recent rumblings indicate that Armonk may be putting on the boxing gloves to fight Redmond for […]

Spencer got a warm, fuzzy feeling as he watched Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the Canadian figure skating duo, receive their well-deserved gold medals a week ago, following a week of turmoil in the skating world. But it was just another example, he mused, of why “judged” competition has no place in the Olympics. “The […]

The Olympic Village in Salt Lake City may not be the only place in Utah where people are making newsworthy leaps. El Gato has heard rumblings that a few of the top players at Novell, in Provo, might be planning some big jumps, too. Over the last year, the Kitty has fielded and dismissed similar […]

The sports-minded mouser last week noted Super Bowl marketing hype may have backfired a bit for AT&T Wireless mLife site. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, the site received 681,000 unique visitors on Super Bowl Sunday—a big leap from the measly 34,000 visitors the day before. The surge was apparently more than the site could handle. […]

Read this weeks Spencer column.